"Ain't I a Teacher?" Examining the Seats of Power for Black Women Educators Through Playwriting

• In Event: Pushing Methodological Boundaries and Performing Curriculum Studies Dissertation Writing

Abstract

Well, Sistas, where there are so many trials there must be a fire. I think that righteous anger of grieving mothers and the unrest of the miseducated youth will place the establishment into an untenable position shortly. But what are we really talking about? That politician over there says that we need to be held accountable for all of these failing scores and failing schools. According to them, we are not only failing students but also our communities. The educational debt is overdue and we need to make an accounting of our misdeeds. Hell, nobody ever asked me what to do in order to fix the system! They just gave me unreachable common standards, store bought curriculum, increased class size, less instructional time, fewer supports and even fewer supplies and told me to make it work. Look at me, Look at my hands! I write lesson plans on my weekends, I grade papers late into the night and before the sun gets up. I talk to wanna be thugs and thugettes and try to convince them to make better choices. I teach the parolees, the patrons, and the pupils alike. And ain’t I a teacher? I could work 365 days a year, 24 hours a day but still not meet all your expectations. I have taught thousands of students and seen some of them go off to college and others strike out into world and build families. Still others are touted off into a system that they will never break free. And ain’t I a teacher? (Researcher’s personal writing inspired by “Ain’t I Woman” Sojourner Truth).

We are in an era of public education where teacher voice is muted, silenced, and devalued. The researcher showcases various narratives that permeate different seats of power within public education for Black female educators. While she does not cast dispersions on various views of power inside, outside, and around education, she wants to lend credence to Black female teachers’ voices. Drawing from the works of Derrick Bell (e.g., 1992), Alice Walker (e.g., 1982), Richard Delgado (e.g., 1989), August Wilson (e.g., 1988), George C. Wolfe (e.g., 1987), Ntozake Shange (e.g., 1982), Lorraine Hansberry (e.g., 1959, William Watkins (e.g., 2011), Toni Morrison (e.g., 1987), Suzan-Lori Parks (e.g., 1992) and William Shakespeare (e.g., 1997), the researcher performs the perspectives from chairs or seats of power that exist in education on a daily basis.
Transgressing traditional dissertation formats (He, Ross, & Seay, 2015) and crafting allegorical plays as methods, the researcher creates allegorical plays of public schools based upon government legislation documents, public meeting notes, newspaper articles, textbooks, and other artifacts. She fictionalizes the counterstories of the Black women teachers based upon reflective notes, daily conversations, journal entries, and other artifacts. Allegory plays allow the researcher to address Black female educators’ experience of power without pointing fingers at specific schools, administrators, schools or districts. Only when we listen to and hear the voices within, around, and outside of the system, will we hear counterstories literally and figuratively.

Author

• Dawn C. whipple, Cobb County School District